The Latest from GadgetLite

Smart Herb Garden lets you grow plants without sunlight
Geeky: Mega Man Plush Arm Blaster and Mega Man Helmet
Gridcase Reactor lets you recharge iPhone 5 with a hand crank
Review Part 2: xqisit xqPRO pocket speaker

Smart Herb Garden lets you grow plants without sunlight

Posted: 05 May 2013 10:25 PM PDT

We saw all sorts of smart devices such as smartphones and smartwatches, but today we have the first smart garden that will allow you to grow plants easily in your apartment.

If you're a fan of plants, and you want to grow a plant in your apartment, but you don't have proper conditions such as enough sunlight, you might be interested in a Smart Herb Garden. This device uses an LED growing lamp to grow your herbs and other selected vegetables, without the need for sun. All that you have to do is to place the plant cartridges, fill the water reservoir, and you're good to go. As we said earlier, Smart Herb Garden doesn't require sunlight, but it also doesn't use soil, and it relies on a nanotech material that's specifically engineered to provide plants with the right amount of nutrients required for growth.

Smart Herb Garden sounds interesting, but it's just a Kickstarter project for now, but you can preorder it by donating $29 to its funding. On the other hand, if you donate $39, you'll get your Smart Herb Garden with with three plant cartridges: basil, thyme and lemon balm.

[via Ubergizmo]

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Geeky: Mega Man Plush Arm Blaster and Mega Man Helmet

Posted: 05 May 2013 10:10 PM PDT

If you're a video game geek, and you want to show your love for a specific video game, today we have something special for you that comes from Capcom.

We don't need to tell you that Capcom is famous for its games, and today we have something for the older Capcom fans, or for Mega Man fans to be precise. If you're fan of Mega Man series, and you want to show your love for Mega Man to the world, you might be interested in Mega Man Plush Arm Blaster and Mega Man Helmet. We have to point out that both Arm Blaster and Mega Man Helmet look great, and both of them are wearable, so they might be perfect for a costume party, or a game convention. In addition, you could probably use them as a pillow replacement.

Mega Man Plush Arm Blaster and Mega Man Helmet look amazing, and you're going to love them, especially if you're a Mega Man fan or just a video game geek. As for the availability, you can get those from E-Capcom for $61.13 after conversion.

[via Ubergizmo]

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Gridcase Reactor lets you recharge iPhone 5 with a hand crank

Posted: 05 May 2013 10:00 PM PDT

There are some unusual iPhone cases on the market, but if you want an eco-friendly iPhone case that will extend the battery life of your iPhone, today we have the perfect device for you.

Gridcase Reactor is an iPhone 5 battery case, but unlike other similar cases on the market, this one uses hand crank in order to recharge your iPhone. The case is made from two pieces, and it comes with a built-in micro-generator, a 400mAh boost battery, and a 500mA manual generator. We have to admit that Gridcase Reactor sounds incredibly useful, especially if you run out of battery when you're travelling, or you need to make an emergency phone call, but we don't know how much cranking will it take to recharge your phone.

Gridcase Reactor sounds interesting, and so far, it's seeking funds at Crowd Supply, and you can preorder your own by pledging $99 to its funding. If Gridcase Reactor reaches its goal, we should see it available for sale in October for $149.

[via Ubergizmo]

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Review Part 2: xqisit xqPRO pocket speaker

Posted: 05 May 2013 08:27 AM PDT

We’d like to thank xqisit again for sending us the new and latest xqPRO, we’ve had a brilliant time using and testing the xqPRO, but as always we’re here to point out what we liked and didn’t like about the speaker (check out our unboxing gallery if you haven’t done so yet).

Design

The brand name says it all – xqisit, and the product itself is nothing short of that, the xqPRO is a very glossy speaker. Touch controls are all built within the top of its glossy shell, there are no actual buttons to press until you reach your fingers to its rear where you’ll find its on/off switch, USB port and AUX-in.

xqisit has called the xqPRO a pocket speaker , this seems to be a term used very frequently, however we think ‘portable speaker’ maybe more suitable because the xqPRO is certainly not something you’ll be able to manage to fit in any pocket. On the other hand, a purse, a camera case, you might have better luck with.

If you took this out of your rugsack in front of your friends, they’re be intrigued by its high-end elegant design, it feels well built, and sturdy for a portable speaker. However, because of this, you’ll also feel very protective of it, the xqPRO is best placed someone on a bookshelf or next to the TV at home, its not been designed with going outdoors in mind – it’ll easily be scratched if one is not careful (hence xqisit have provided a carrying case).

Features

Here’s a quick recap of all its key features:

Hands-free kit with integrated microphone

Touchpanel for extremely simple operation

6W HD stereo music power with passive subwoofer

Integrated LI-ion battery pack (USB charger cable included)

Up to 10 hours operating time

Recharging time: 3 hours

3.5 mm headphone jack

Bluetooth 2.1: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP

Voice prompting in English

The basic functions of the xqPRO are fairly straight forward to use, we paired it to a range of devices with ease including MacBook Pro, iPhone 4S, Galaxy S3 and even the car – Audi MMI 3G. To initiate pairing, start by pressing and holding the circle on the top of the speaker. From there on its simple because the xqPRO talks to you and tells you what is happening.

Because the xqPRO has its own built in microphone, once you’re paired, it acts more than just a bluetooth speaker, given that your device supports it, the xqPRO will be your hands-free microphone as well, this worked well when paired with my car but also with my MacBook Pro for Skype for example.

As the xqPRO has its own integrated passive subwoofer, it is capable of amplifying your music or what ever you’re asking it to play substantially, the sound quality is average.

In addition to just tapping ‘-’ or ‘+’ to change volume, xqisit have also given the xqPRO additional functions to make it standout from the crowd, but here is where we are not so sure.

By tapping the touch panel you can control the paired bluetooth device, for example iTunes on my MacBook Pro or my iPhone. Tapping the circle will either play/pause iTunes or answer/end a call. Sliding two fingers from left to right will allow you to play the next song and likewise, sliding to the left plays the previous song. Tapping the circle again but twice will allow you to answer third party or to toggle between third party call and original call.

There are also other combinations, sliding one finger from left to right rejects an incoming call, while doing the same during a phone call will activate mute. To deactivate mute, tap on either ’-’ or ‘+’.

As you can see, all the different combination of strokes and functions seem very clever but are quite confusing, my criticism is that I’m not sure the xqPRO needs to have this feature. You see, there are only a few situations where a bluetooth speaker is needed. With majority of devices these days having decent built in sound systems, the need for an external speaker is when you need to play your music even louder in a spacious environment for example at a BBQ in your garden. However in situations like these you’d usually have your paired device (ie iPhone) in your hand, its unlikely that one would walk to the speaker and stroke it to change songs. I agree with tapping it to change volume but probably not to change songs as it doesn’t have a screen anyway to tell me what the next song is.

In addition to my dilemma the touch control isn’t exactly the best, its not very sensitive, sometimes its abit of a hit and miss, my greatest bugbear of all is that there is no feedback from the device, it doesn’t give you a vibration or a shake, on several occasions we’ve sat there stroking and tapping it but nothing happened. If I can’t control it at home on my desk how could I tap it to answer phone calls when driving and my eyes are on the road? I am sure xqisit would not endorse anyone trying to master this while driving however this is the whole point of having a handsfree kit.

Hence, we think xqisit should stick to what they’re good at, making a decent portable speaker.

Conclusion

The xqisit xqPRO costs £119.99 to buy via MobileFun and Amazon, that is not unreasonable however there are certainly more affordable options available that offer similar features. But if you’ve seen the design and you’ve fallen in love with it, you’ll be getting yourself a decent portable bluetooth speaker that will last a good 10-hours playing time with every charge. We’re not so sure about its multi-touch control panel but if you’re only after a good looking speaker that does its basic job well then you can’t really go wrong.

Be sure to check out our unboxing gallery as well.

What we liked:

Elegant, high end glossy design

Built in microphone to act as hands-free kit

Built in passive subwoofer

Options to use bluetooth or AUX-in

What we didn’t like:

A little pricey

Too bulky to be pocket size

Difficult to use multi-touch controls

Average sound quality